¨He’s come here to smoke blunts and kick @$$”
The back cover hype is real, folks, and sure as shootin’, Scotch McTiernan Versus Forces of Evil lives up to the boast. It’s a trade collection of three previously printed one-shots from Image Comics. It Collects The Secret History Of The War On Weed One-Shot, Halloween One-Shot, and Scotch McTiernan’s Holiday Party One-Shot.
Pack away your sensitivities in your old kit bag for this hard-swearing trade book; it’s rough, it’s ready to offend and make you laugh. It’s like MAD magazine at its rudest, a slap in the face of correctness. Its three issues introduce our hero, a gung-ho mercenary. Picture Rambo and Nick Fury on steroids, with a bigger mouth and a hilarious sense of wordplay. And then arrives Scotch’s strong desire to smoke cannabis! Holy Bogarts, it’s a patriot gone wild!
Writers Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn give us a fanatically funny and entertaining script, with endless puns, comic-book in-jokes, and an amazing ‘omniscient narrator’ to boot. It’s ribald, it’s wayyy over the top, and completely refreshing. In addition to the ultra-aware script and the wonderful pacing, Scott Koblish’s line art is superb.
The poses, the gun battles, and confrontations are strongly constructed. It’s Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and Not Brand ECHH for the new millennium, with hyper-exaggerated action and consequences. Koblish knows how the comic reader wants to relish the Dr Strange-influenced pot trips, the kick-to-the-groin episodes, the smarmy expressions on the jaded monsters. It’s a Marvel comic art fantasy come to life! So Good.
Hi-Fi colours it bright and cheery, which magically works to keep the season bright. It’s wildly atmospheric rather than a ‘grim war comic’, with blue skies, orange hair, and olive green meanies.
The letters by Clayton Cowles and Joe Sabrino stay in their lane, only becoming rampant when exploding, “Beep Beep Beep”ing, or “Skrashking”.
Highly volatile, highly entertaining with a supreme blend of octane and flammability!
Image Comics, Scotch McTiernan Versus Forces of Evil, $16.99 for 146 pages of content plus bonus sketch and text pages. Mature
Newsdesk